Brant banding question

B

Bill Ferrar

Well-known member
I have a question about the banded brant I saw.
I have seen many brant that were banded. Alway seen metal bands maybe 1/2 wide.
Yesterday I saw a flock of brant feeding on a lawn. One bird the right leg had what looked like ( red plastic) as wide as duct tape. Is that some new style of band?
 
While metal bands are standard for many monitoring and research programs, they are an “A” & “B” story. Data is limited to the details at the time of capture and recovery. To bridge this gap, often additional methods are needed to assist in filling information in between. Unique colored or text of auxiliary markers like neck-collar and tarsus bands are one means to identify individuals multiple times and from a distance. They are quite useful in behavioral studies to identify different individuals as well delineating a population range. Due to brant’s short necks, neck-collars can have delirious effects, so colored/text tarsus bands are more commonly used than say for Canada geese or swans.

About Auxiliary Markers | U.S. Geological Survey
 
MIKE-SID said:
Now that you are leaving CT, what is your secret brant spot,......so I can make sure no one is hunting there. 😂🤣
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An interesting note is that those color banded brant both came from a spot that I didn't hunt too often. They were shot in two different years on opposite sides of the same point. The black banded one came in as a pair and my son shot the other, which was single banded, so 6 bands off that same point.

I have some brant decoys to sell, my numbers will go with those. :).
 
Tom Bidrowski said:
While metal bands are standard for many monitoring and research programs, they are an “A” & “B” story. Data is limited to the details at the time of capture and recovery. To bridge this gap, often additional methods are needed to assist in filling information in between. Unique colored or text of auxiliary markers like neck-collar and tarsus bands are one means to identify individuals multiple times and from a distance. They are quite useful in behavioral studies to identify different individuals as well delineating a population range. Due to brant’s short necks, neck-collars can have delirious effects, so colored/text tarsus bands are more commonly used than say for Canada geese or swans.

About Auxiliary Markers | U.S. Geological Survey
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Tom~

Great reply! The only thing I will add is that a neck collar could also eclipse the "necklaces" that Brant wear - which are likely important for intraspecific communication. This is especially important for some true "individuals".....

sm Brant with RED.jpg

All the best,

SJS
 
I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest several tarsals on Brant including one from Iceland. But that convenient banding to help track comes with a price for the Brant. Guys will shoot over their limit in hopes to get one for their lanyard. I’ve seen it first hand at work and hunting there’s dead brant stashed or just floating. Now with this massive cold spell here in the northeast there’s a ton of dead Brant all over the roads. Could be from lack of food but if I had to guess a lot took some shot that didn’t die and now the weather finished them off.
 
Wyatt Russo said:
I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest several tarsals on Brant including one from Iceland. But that convenient banding to help track comes with a price for the Brant. Guys will shoot over their limit in hopes to get one for their lanyard. I’ve seen it first hand at work and hunting there’s dead brant stashed or just floating. Now with this massive cold spell here in the northeast there’s a ton of dead Brant all over the roads. Could be from lack of food but if I had to guess a lot took some shot that didn’t die and now the weather finished them off.
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They do like to band them, that is for sure, there are times I wonder what the positive outcomes of all the banding had been. I've never seen a brant not claimed or floating, sad that that could happen.
 
Wyatt Russo said:
I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest several tarsals on Brant including one from Iceland. But that convenient banding to help track comes with a price for the Brant. Guys will shoot over their limit in hopes to get one for their lanyard. I’ve seen it first hand at work and hunting there’s dead brant stashed or just floating. Now with this massive cold spell here in the northeast there’s a ton of dead Brant all over the roads. Could be from lack of food but if I had to guess a lot took some shot that didn’t die and now the weather finished them off.
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I want a brant band more that most, BUT I just shoot what comes in. Unfortunately none came this year. Seems is they developed a pattern in my area that doesn't include my hunting spots, the nerve! It's time to branch out to a new area.
 
Bill,
Those are tracking devices affixed with geo-locators. This is a joint project between NYSDEC, NJDEP and Canadian Wildlife services to study migration & breeding patterns. An immense amount of information comes fourth with this program including breeding habits, migration flyways and population movement.
I have been involved with the banding process and most recently participated in migration tracking this past season. There is a large migration stagnant with the cold here in the northeast. They are banded in large numbers primarialy because they are easy to capture in flocks. The brant migration patterns also provide significant information about other species as well.

There are talks about expanding the geo-locators "out-of-view" where these trackers / identifiers would be tucked up as to prevent the specific target shooting of these birds just for the jewelry. This would greatly expand the life of the GPS locators, fetching more data and offer an added surprise when harvesting.

Imagine using your cell phone to literally scan your birds to identify if it has a tracking device? Or finding out the information about this band encounter immediately after harvest upon scan? All that data is then transferred immediately and the user is sent a certificate right to screen.. seems distant but likely closer to the future then we all think.


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I just want to shoot one, I don't need the bling on it, just think it's the coolest of the geese and have never even seen one.

Hopefully one day, seems like the only way to get one here in NC is to be in the know or have deep pockets to get to the curtain blinds.
 
MIKE-SID said:
I want a brant band more that most, BUT I just shoot what comes in. Unfortunately none came this year. Seems is they developed a pattern in my area that doesn't include my hunting spots, the nerve! It's time to branch out to a new area.
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I know there are guys that hold out for bands, but I've not really done that. I certainly have shot brant that I saw the bands on when they were working, maybe my eye was drawn to them and that is why I was shooting at that particular bird (I've seen bands on ducks and geese before pulling the trigger too).

I would say in my areas of CT the past few years the brant hunting has gotten a lot tougher, but maybe that is just me not an overall trend. I do miss the days of the mega flocks in the early 2000's with clouds of birds rolling over the decoys, I haven't seen that in a long while.
 
tod osier said:
I know there are guys that hold out for bands, but I've not really done that. I certainly have shot brant that I saw the bands on when they were working, maybe my eye was drawn to them and that is why I was shooting at that particular bird (I've seen bands on ducks and geese before pulling the trigger too).

I would say in my areas of CT the past few years the brant hunting has gotten a lot tougher, but maybe that is just me not an overall trend. I do miss the days of the mega flocks in the early 2000's with clouds of birds rolling over the decoys, I haven't seen that in a long while.
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I haven't shot one in several years. There are so few around, I just enjoy seeing them.
 
I've pulled the trigger exactly once in my life on a brant. The one and only time I was fortunate enough to hunt the curtain blinds off Ocracoke about 7-8 years ago (not deep pockets ben just lucky to get an invite). One bird limit so I had to watch the rest of the flock leave. Could have easily tripled. Brant don't use the marsh around here, water is too fresh I guess. In all my years hunting out there I only saw them once, a pair. For some reason that year there was a bunch around because I heard many stories of guys killing them that year. Been about 20 years ago.

I've always thought they were a really cool bird. One of my bucket lists which will likely never happen is to carve a rig of brant and hunt over them one day. I've made a few canvas brant to sell but never hunted over. I think a rig of cork and canvas gunners would be sweet.
 
JasonM said:
One bird limit so I had to watch the rest of the flock leave. Could have easily tripled.
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Lucky you didn't triple. The way they bunch up, I've seen many multiple bird shots. One time years ago I took three friends. A flock of eight came in and the three of them shot once each. I didnt shoot because I was pretty sure what would happen. Three shots, eight brant feet up. My dog had a good time with that.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
Lucky you didn't triple. The way they bunch up, I've seen many multiple bird shots. One time years ago I took three friends. A flock of eight came in and the three of them shot once each. I didnt shoot because I was pretty sure what would happen. Three shots, eight brant feet up. My dog had a good time with that.
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As I recall they did kinda bunch up. Was maybe 6-8, can't remember exactly. They came right on the water off my partners side. I had to let the first couple get far enough past him to call the shot. By the time I did the lead bird that I came up on lit. While I'm not opposed in the least to shooting a duck on the water I somehow had the self control to quickly decide I didn't want to kill my first brant sitting. Switched to another just behind it then had to watch my buddy go to the plug to finally kill his! Lol
 
Wyatt Russo said:
I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest several tarsals on Brant including one from Iceland. But that convenient banding to help track comes with a price for the Brant. Guys will shoot over their limit in hopes to get one for their lanyard. I’ve seen it first hand at work and hunting there’s dead brant stashed or just floating. Now with this massive cold spell here in the northeast there’s a ton of dead Brant all over the roads. Could be from lack of food but if I had to guess a lot took some shot that didn’t die and now the weather finished them off.
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I bicycle ride an area that in near the bay and also near a few golf courses. I was alarmed with the amount of dead brant and geese I have been seeing. At first I was thinking the cold weather.
With the snow I did not get back to cycling till Friday. I counted 5 dead. This is Monday and the count is over a dozen. Two on the road the rest near the roads.
 
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